by scholars from all over Europe who joined Charles’s court circle—the Anglo-Saxon
Alcuin, the Visigoth Theodulf of Orléans (author of the Libri Carolini), the Italians Paul
the Deacon and Paulinus of Aquileia, the Frank Einhard, and others—and the creations of
Carolingian artists during the same years, show a sophistication, a subtlety in their use of
earlier texts and artistic productions, and an innovativeness that scholars are only starting
to appreciate fully. The artistic and intellectual achievements that Charlemagne fostered
laid the groundwork for the accomplishments in the same areas under his son Louis the
Pious (778–840), yet Louis inherited an empire that, in other ways, was showing signs of
strain. During the last decade of Charles’s reign, with the end of the wars of conquest and
the flow of revenue from them, the Carolingian empire experienced increasing corruption
and disaffection among its aristocracy. Charlemagne responded in part by reemphasizing
older, Frankish traditions, and thus in accordance with Frankish custom the Divisio
regnorum of 806 arranged that after Charles’s death his territories be divided among his
legitimate sons, Charles the Younger (d. 811), Pepin (d. 810), and Louis, each of whom
he had already appointed to be king of part of the empire. No attempt was made at the
time to ensure the empire’s continued unity, nor was a plan set forth for transmission of
the imperial title.
By 813, Charles the Younger and Pepin were dead, however, and Louis the Pious
received the imperial crown in September of that year. He became sole emperor in the
West when Charlemagne died, in January 814.
Celia Chazelle
[See also: ALCUIN; CAROLINGIAN ART; CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY;
EINHARD; LATIN POETRY, CAROLINGIAN; LIBRI CAROLINI; LATIN POETRY,
CAROLINGIAN; LOUIS I THE PIOUS; MILLENNIALISM; PEPIN; THEODULF OF
ORLÉANS]
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